The use of robots is known for handling products, for example for packaging and/or for handling such packaging. To allow the robots to be positioned above a conveying path, for example, corresponding structural elements such as support frames are necessary. Since the handling of the products and/or their packaging sometimes proceeds at very high speeds, for example at well over 100 product transfers per minute, very high acceleration forces of up to 10 g (g=gravitational acceleration) and sometimes higher act on the support frame structure.
Additional loads on the support frame structure sometimes result from high weight forces from the products being handled, and for this reason the support frame must have the most stable design possible in order to keep vibrations as far away from the system as possible and thereby allow exact positioning of the gripping elements of the robot.
In order to achieve high mechanical stability for the support frame, it is customary in the trade to use profiled tubes in the construction of the support frame.
In particular in applications for which hygiene is critical, for example in the handling of foods, pharmaceuticals, or medical equipment products, and/or packaging for same, increasingly stringent hygiene requirements are imposed on the handling devices, for which adherence to the design of frame structures known heretofore is sometimes possible only with great difficulty.